The invention relates to an automatically controlled washing machine having, arranged at the front within the body of the machine, a flushing or dispensing mechanism for laundry treatment media, which mechanism contains a drawer which is accessible from the front having at least one container for powdered, liquid or gel-form laundry treatment media, and having a device for automatically feeding each stored laundry treatment medium into the treatment process.
A washing machine of this kind is known from DE 34 03 622 A1. In this machine, in the pulling direction of a drawer, behind conventional detergent chambers which are integral to the body of the drawer and which are open at the top for filling with single doses of washing powder or washing liquids and can be flushed out from above by means of water jets, is arranged a likewise integral supply chamber for liquid laundry treatment medium. The supply chamber has to be re-filled again once the supply has been exhausted. A filling opening is provided in the top part of the supply chamber for this purpose. With each movement of the detergent drawer into a position for filling the chambers, a designated dose of stored laundry treatment medium is conveyed by means of a mechanism mounted on the drawer and its housing from the supply chamber into a dosing chamber, from where it may be transferred by means of water into the washing machine tub during the course of a subsequent wash program.
DE 34 03 628 A1 also discloses a washing machine in the drawer of which only integral supply chambers for liquid laundry treatment medium are arranged in any case. For the modern market of today, both these washing machines are too rigidly geared to the use of a specific type of laundry treatment media. Furthermore the known detergent dispensing mechanisms are very difficult to clean and very often this is not done or not done often enough, with the result that residues of laundry treatment media remain which after a time become contaminated bactericidally and fungicidally, to the detriment of both the laundry and the user.
The object underlying the invention is therefore to embody a washing machine of the type cited in the introduction in such a way that the user can firstly decide flexibly on one or other type of laundry treatment medium.